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De Ruyter acknowledges load shedding’s impact on South Africans

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Eskom CEO Andre De Ruyter has acknowledged that the problems at the power utility have a negative impact on people.

He’s received a list of demands from the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema in Sunninghill, north of Johannesburg, on Friday.

A large crowd of EFF supporters marched to the Eskom head office to highlight the problem of load shedding – among other things.

De Ruyter says he’ll engage with the EFF leaders and find an amicable solution to the problem of load shedding in the country.

“I want to thank you for carrying enough about Eskom, to March peacefully all the way to Megawatt Park today, we appreciate it. We take your commitment seriously and we’ll engage with your leadership and understand your memorandum fully, we will consider and engage and debate, thank you very much.”

Eskom CEO says private capital is needed and also additional generation capacity.

He says: “We do need extra generation capacity; we are looking at Independent power producers and other forms of energy generation. We need this as we will be decommissioning other coal-powered stations.”

EFF wants an end to power cuts…  

’30 days to respond’

The EFF has given Eskom management 30 days to respond to its memorandum of demands, among them, an end to load shedding, the resignation of Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan and for Eskom to be restructured in such a way to create job opportunities.

De Ruyter says the power utility is willing to work with the EFF as they have some common ground regarding the issues it faces – such as the debt owed to Eskom by the municipalities – which the EFF agrees must be paid.

“I think the fact that they are keen to engage is very important that they’ve addressed the issue of municipal debt. That is important. So we believe that there are areas of commonality here that can be addressed,” Malema says.

Independent Power Producers

The EFF has called on Eskom to abandon the use of Independent Power Producers. The party wants an end to load shedding and they’ve even offered friendship to new Eskom Group CEO if he achieves it.

Malema says: “We are demanding an end to load shedding. We can’t even plan our lives anymore because you say its stage 2; next thing it jumps to stage five. We also want you to stop IPP’s. If you can do all these things you would have proven us wrong because we didn’t support your appointment.”

In the video below, EFF leader addressing party supporters.

The government has already said Eskom will be around for a while. Eskom reiterated that narrative.

Power cuts will be the order of the day while Eskom conducts its massive maintenance for all power plants.  It seems the EFF’s demand for Eskom to do away with Independent Power Producers will not be heeded.

The EFF says persistent power cuts will be met with demonstration like this one – which brought the North of Johannesburg to a standstill.

 

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